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{
    "id": 1488224,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1488224/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 321,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Therefore, if we lost the entire 2024/2025 Finance Bill, then the projected revenues that would have come from that Bill, which accumulated to a total of about Ksh346 billion, are not available today. That had an implication on the performance of our economy. This also means that besides losing the Ksh346 billion, the economy is also bound to lose much more than that. That is because, part of the revenues that we are raising were going into productive sectors of the economy that would have generated more money. It is, therefore, foolhardy for those in the Senate to argue that what was projected at the time we did the Division of Revenue Bill earlier this year will suffice and the national Government must be able to bear the entire burden of the loss of the Finance Bill alone. If you look at the figures as has been articulated by the Vice-Chairperson of the Committee, from the entire shortfall of Ksh346 billion, the national Government was going to bear Ksh325.88 billion, which can be rounded off to Ksh326 billion. We are asking the county governments to bear Ksh20 billion only. If you divide this amount amongst the 47 counties, you get an average of about Ksh380 million per county. That is money that they can survive without! Should we be able to recover some of the tax measures that we had in the course of the year, and are able to generate more revenue, nothing stops us from re-appropriating and dividing more monies to the counties. It must not be lost to our senators and governors that besides the shareable revenue that they get here, there are also conditional allocations that have not been touched. The Vice- Chairperson of the Committee should have reminded the senators and governors that the equitable share of Ksh20 billion is the only amount we are asking them to sacrifice because of the problems that we ran into. If you look at the percentages, the Ksh20 billion to be shared amongst the 47 county governments, is equivalent to 5.81 per cent. Whereas the national Government was going to lose 12.83 per cent which is almost 13 per cent of what was projected as the revenues that would go to each level of government. I, therefore, beg that we reject these amendments from the Senate so that we can go into sober mediation. I ask our good senators - and I know it behoves on them as senators to be seen to be protecting the counties – that they cannot do this by just shouting in towns. Protect counties by holding governors to account. A lot of resources are wasted in the counties and we do not see any accountability in the Senate. I do not want to disparage the Public Accounts Committee in the Senate, but they and all Kenyans know what happens in that Committee. No governor is ever held to account and we must make sure this happens. And to our governors, they should …"
}